Heaven in the Here and Now
by Dan Breaddy
Summary: [one-shot, for Liebling] Draco and Ginny talk, among other things, about childish notions, bad days, smiles, the world, and Heaven in the Here and Now.


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Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or places mentioned in this fic and am making no profit off of them.

Author's Note: This fic is dedicated to: Liebling! She's a great person, and her stories are so awesome. Beside, she gave me a piece of this story that I'm forever grateful for! Thanks, you're awesome!

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Heaven in the Here and Now

Some people called her naïve. Some called her foolish. Some called her simple.

He knew otherwise. He knew that she was not naïve, nor was she foolish or simple.

She was the most puzzling character that he had ever stumbled upon, and she never ceased to amaze him.

She was everything that, secretly, he had aspired to be. She was good, and she didn't even know how good she was. She was smart, and she didn't even know how smart she was. He knew all of these things, and he hated how humble she was. She couldn't take credit for anything, not even for making bread or getting a good mark.

He always took credit, for it was his. She understood things, like why birds fly ("To get away from earth"). She understood the complexity of sleeping draughts and the smell of chocolate.

She had the logic of child, still awed and silenced by the absolute wonder of the working of the world. She didn't overanalyze things, and didn't mind when things went wrong. She smiled at everything and everyone, and her cheery, perky attitude was infectious.

Even to him.

And he was drawn to her. She was like a complex puzzle asking to be solved. She was like a new land, waiting to be discovered. She was an excellent listener and a better storyteller. She knew humor, she knew anguish. She knew tragedy and legends and romance and poems, and she would tell them, and he could sit at her feet, enthralled and engrossed.

And he was confused. If he were she, he would have been sulky and depressed, not cheerful and happy. Instead of a smile, he would have rather scowled. Instead of bouncing along on his way to class, he would have scuffled his heels on the stone.

"How do you do it?" he asked her one day as she dipped her hand in the water of the Lake.

"How do I do what?" she asked, completely unaware of how simple and beautiful she looked in the setting sun. The clear water surrounded her hand with ripples and she moved it around, watching the ripples mix with other ripples.

"How do you manage to smile at everyone?"

"Everyone including you, you mean?" she asked, brushing her red ponytail back. He smirked at her and she simply laughed.

"I dunno, it's always been easier to smile at strangers instead of frown. Or in your case, smirk," she said pointedly. " 'Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so, some have entertained angels unaware'," she quoted wisely.

"Do you ever have a bad day?" he asked irritated and slightly jealous, knowing full well the answer and that he, unlike her, had had many. She looked up at him and cocked her head.

"No," she replied, confused. "Every day I live to experience is always a good day for me." He snorted.

"Malfoy!" she said. He looked at her and pretended to be innocent. "As I was saying," she continued, "Sure, bad things happen throughout it, and things that I didn't anticipate, but I'll live, and I'll learn from it.

"Life's too short to be wasted brooding," she playfully punched him in the arm, "Over things that you really have no control over."

"You're so childish, to really believe that," he said, brushing hair the color of moonlight out of his face.

"Am I?" she asked. He nodded through half-lidded eyes. "Just reclaiming the childhood I lost."

"What do you mean?" he asked. It was now his turn to be confused.

"I grew up too fast, back when I was eleven. I did things that made me mature faster than I should have. I lost my child-like innocence and intellect with Tom. A thirty-year old trapped inside an eleven-year-old. Imagine the conflict."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Like I said, I'll live and I'll learn."

"You can't _really _believe that, can you?" he asked her.

"Why not?"

"Because it's so _wrong_," he explained. She drew her knees up to her chest wrapped her arms around them, listening to him speak. "It's too simple, it's too easy and plain! It's not the way the World works."

"Why not?" she asked again. She didn't mock him; she just wanted to know.

"I don't know," he answered her simply.

"I don't really agree with that," she said.

"Oh?"

"Yes. I believe that we need refocus everything. Get back to the simple life, when a 'Yes' was a yes and a 'No' was a no. When romance consisted of courtship and not a fling. When people sought others happiness and found their own joy in serving them."

He looked at her, awed and amazed.

"It'd be nice if the world was like that," he said. "But that sounds more like heaven than the world now." She looked at him and rested her head on his shoulder, where the curve of her cheekbone met the curve of his shoulder to his neck. Her hand found his and her long, freckled fingers circled his palm.

"Yeah," she agreed. "That would be nice." Her small shoulders rose up and down in a shrug. "But I guess this is _our_ Heaven in the Here and Now."


End file.
